A few weeks ago, we started planning for Valentine's Day. Being it fell on a Saturday this year, it was the perfect time to do a weekend getaway. If we wanted to make the most of our time in our chosen city, we knew we had to plan something on the west coast. We thought about going to Santa Barbara, Long Beach, San Diego, or the L.A. area and incorporate a college basketball game into our trip in one of those city's, but all those teams were away, so we decided on Seattle. Both Robbie and I have been to Seattle together once before, but it was only for a baseball game, and we never made it into the city, so it was like we were visiting for the first time.
Our flight left on Friday evening on Alaska Airlines, and I must say: Alaska Airlines is pretty sweet! The Economy Class seating is very spacious, with more leg room than most other airlines, each seat has plug-ins built right in so you can stay charged for your whole flight, and most of their fleet is new and updated. They even had music playing through the speaker system during boarding and deplaning! A+, Alaska!
Our flight was delayed about an hour leaving Vegas, so we got into SeaTac at around 11pm. SeaTac is about a 20 minute drive from the city, but we decided to take the LightRail into Seattle, which doubled our transportation time. By the time we got to our hotel, it was already after midnight. We were greeted with very comfortable amenities at the Homewood Suites, and in no time we were snoozing. In the morning we were happy to find out that our room had an outdoor balcony facing the city and budding cherry blossom trees! The best sign of spring ever!
We didn't really have an itinerary going into Seattle, and I'm coming to realize that those are my favorite trips, where most activities are spontaneous. We both had things that we wanted to do, so on Saturday morning, we set out to do them. Our first stop was the Space Needle. The Needle was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, and we were there in no time.
I went to Seattle a long time ago with my family and we went up in the Space Needle, but I don't remember any of it! When we got to the top, the views were stunning, even with the overcast skies! When we stepped out of the elevator, our first views were to the north, looking at Queen Anne. We then walked around to the views of Puget Sound and the skyline. The sights were breathtaking! I miss natural bodies of water! I took a black and white photo of the skyline and the Sound because I thought it would fit with the grey skies at the time. We then made our way around the observation deck to the eastern view, looking at Lake Washington and beyond. I love how Seattle is surrounded by water on nearly all sides!
After we landed on the ground again, we went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum, which is literally right under the Needle. The museum consisted of different rooms with extravagant glass masterpieces. My favorite exhibit was a bunch of different pieces of glass displayed in a boat. I chuckled when I turned to Robbie and said, "look, a boatload of glass!" :) After the indoor exhibits were done, we were directed outside where there were more glass displays in the garden area. The focal point of this area was a huge glass piece that looked like the sun, and it was right under the Needle! I had fun playing with angles to capture that glass piece with the Space Needle! I loved this museum!
After admiring all the glass displays, we headed over to the other side of the Needle where there was the International Fountain where we had a chance to relax! Right next to to the Fountain was Key Arena, where the Seattle Supersonics used to play! Pretty cool!
After enjoying our time by the Sound, we followed the shoreline south into the heart of the city. On our way, we saw some pretty interesting statues, and walked by the Port of Seattle.
By the time we reached downtown, it was mid-afternoon. We took a quick peek at Pike Place Market (we were too tired to fight the rest of Seattle who decided to come to the Market as well). However, our quick visit to the Market definitely paid off because as we were walking through it, there was a street performer singing Hallelujah, the song that Robbie sang during our wedding. It pulled on my heartstrings just a little bit when I thought about all our time together in the last almost 5 years of marriage, and our 7 (!!!) Valentine's Day's together!! Talk about being at the right place at the right time! When we left the Market, we spent a lot of time on the Pier right by the Great Wheel, Seattle's ferris wheel.
Back when we pin-pointed Seattle as our Valentine's destination, we thought it would be the perfect nightacp to have dinner at the restaurant on the top of the Space Needle. Around the middle of January, I called to make a reservation, but they were already booked! We figured if that restaurant was already booked, it would be hard to get into any fancy restaurant at all. That's when we had the idea to get dressed up and go to a casual restaurant. But then, the more we thought aboutit, the more we decided against dressing up at all, even though it was Valentine's Day! We knew that we weren't going to have a lot of time in Seattle, and we didn't want to cut our time even shorter by going back to our hotel room, get fancified, and head back out. So we just went casual all around! Robbie found a Red Robin that was on one of the piers, so we planned on doing that for dinner. Unfortunately when we got to that area, we realized it was in the middle of a construction zone, and the restaurant was closed! Boooo! Robbie then got into his map, and found a pizza place nearby, so we agreed on that. We were both starving and pizza was the perfect fit! It was deeee-licious!
After our dinner, we headed over to the Sky View Observatory in the Columbia Center to watch the sun set over the city and the Puget Sound. A bunch of other Valentine's couples had the same idea, too, but I was able to secure a spot in front of the window just as the sun was setting behind the mountains. It was almost surreal, and I am so glad we were able to get 2 different vantage points from up high in Seattle. It was like we were bookending the city from the top! The observation deck was a 360 degree view, so we got to see all sides of Seattle, including its neighboring city, Bellvue, which is home to my company headquarters, Egencia!!!
After soaking up the last ounce of daylight, we started our trek back to our hotel. Robbie has an old coworker, Nick,who now lives in Seattle, and we found that his apartment was just blocks away from our hotel, so we walked to his place to visit with him for the evening. It was great to see him and his girlfriend again; we got together a bunch for game days when he lived in Vegas.
Sunday morning we went out for brunch at the Original Pancake House with some of our old friends from Vegas, including Nick, and another former coworker of Robbie's, Hilary. It was nice to have a mini-reunion. On our way to brunch, Nick told us about a giant cement troll living under a bridge, so we swung by there before breakfast. It was pretty odd, the troll just coming out of the ground!
After spending a good amount of time at the market, it was time for us to go back to the airport, sadly. We really enjoyed our time in Seattle, and can't wait to make it back someday, and hopefully soon! As we were heading back to the airport, Mt. Rainier was right in front of us, in all its glory. It was beautiful! I also had my fix of Starbucks at the airport, from where it all began!
As we were making our descent back into Vegas, I realized how un-natural Vegas is, as compared to Seattle. All the water, grass, trees and snow-capped mountains was such a refreshing sight. Seattle bumped its way up on my list of favorite places to visit. The only thing is: no one told me about all the hills in Seattle!! I would've prepared my body more for this trip had I known!
"May your trails be crooked, winding, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view." - Edward Abbey
